Pages

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Bloody Belly-Button

Warning: This post is exactly as disgusting as the title makes it sound. Here comes the honesty! You might want to skip this post if you're squeamish. Because, yes, that picture is of blood poring out of my belly button yesterday.

When you get diagnosed with RA, all the doctors and articles tell you to expect joint pain. Most of them at least warn you about fatigue. But I don't think anyone I ever talked to or anything I read ever really explained the potentially bizarre consequences of (a) having a compromised/confused immune system plus (b) taking biologics, like Enbrel, which purposely compromise/confuse your immune system even more.

I swear: more bizarre things have happened to my body in the last two years than in the previous 25 years before that combined. Weird stuff happens to me all the time. My lip spontaneously splits and then refuses to heal. I've had bloody noses that gushed for hours when I never had a bloody nose before in my life. Products that I've used for a million years, like sunscreen, give me rashes. Sometimes I get rashes for no apparent reason. And who could forget the random infection in my boob that had to be cut open and drained and resulted in my first stitches ever being in my boob? This stuff is so bizarre and seems to happen so frequently these days that it almost seems normal after two years. Almost.

But yesterday I discovered a totally new and creative form of my body behaving bizarrely. A funny feeling prompted me to lift up my shirt to discover a puddle of blood completly filling my belly button. Excuse the language but: WTF?

Actually, I had known that my belly button had an infection. How this happened, I have no idea. I'm pretty sure belly button infections are something that should happen to a 2 year old who rolls in and eats dirt, not a 27 year old who showers every day. But I can't begin to explain my body, I just try to deal with what it throws at me. So I had been putting iodine in my belly button and soaking in salt baths to try to kill the infection. I honestly thought it had gone away. Instead, I bled my own blood until my belly button was like a tiny bloody swimming pool.

I am aware that this is totally disgusting and/or disturbing. But this blog is about honesty and my life since getting diagnosed with RA. At least for me, weird (and disgusting and disturbing) infections have been a big part of my journey. So I'm sharing it. I also took a photo of my disgusting belly button. You're welcome. ~;o)

I know that must have been extremely unpleasant, but this blog entry made me laugh so hard. I hope it stopped. Bleeding, that is. Thanks for sharing this gross story in an hilarious way. That's right, I used "an."